Gekokujou
by NarcissisticRiceBall
Summary: Hiyoshi centered fic that takes place right before Hyotei finds out they're going to the Nationals. Much Hyotei loving in it and many other cameos. BTW, Hiyoshi isn't paired with anybody. To defeat the higher and take his place...
1. Talking to Oneself

**A/N:** A new story. And yes, it is about Hiyoshi because he does not get enough love. No, this does not pair Hiyoshi with anybody. Nothing really works in my mind. And really, this isn't supposed to be about relationships like that. Of course, there are plenty of hints to keep fans of every pairing happy. This is also very Hyotei centric...since Hiyoshi is a member of Hyotei...Right, anyways, thought I would challenge myself to write for somebody who is never written on and is fairly difficult to write for since he does not have much screen time. I was actually inspired to get writing on it after seeing the Rokkaku musical. Regradless, point is, I have written a story filled with super analyses and character loving. I can only hope that you enjoy reading this. Now, on with the show.

I don't own PoT. There would be so many other things if I did...

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_Gekokujou…_

…_To defeat the greater and take his place…That is my goal…Now…_

_How the hell do I do that with these people…_

"Hiyoshi!"

"What?"

"Do you find ore-sama so boring?"

"…"

Hiyoshi Wakashi remained silent even though he wanted to tell his captain, "yes." The captain of Hyotei, Atobe Keigo, stood imperiously over the regulars and turned his icy stare towards the back-up player.

"Perhaps if you ever paid attention to ore-sama, you wouldn't lose so much, aan?"

"…"

He had enough training to know how to keep his calm even though he wanted so badly to whip out his martial arts and take the Hyotei diva to town. However, Hiyoshi found himself unable to say anything.

_Stupid Atobe…He thinks he's so great…I'll show him…_

"Should ore-sama check back when you are done having a conversation with yourself?"

The other players were now staring expectantly at him as if he actually had an answer to Atobe's snide question. Of which, Hiyoshi noticed, seemed to be happening more frequently. Since the Kanto tournament, Atobe appeared just a little edgier than before.

"Continue…"

"Anyways, though we are not going to nationals, we will still be holding practice. There is no excuse for our loss and we will rectify such errors for the future. Is ore-sama clear on this?"

There was a general murmur of acknowledgment from the regulars as Atobe smartly turned on his heel and sauntered off to the clubhouse. The others were left to follow but chose a more leisurely pace.

"Sheesh, he's one of the people that won and he seems the most bent."

Mukahi Gakuto idly brushed a strand of hair from his face as he walked beside his usual doubles partner, Oshitari Yuushi. The shorter boy looked up questioningly at Hyotei's genius expecting some great words of insight. Actually, most players did look to Oshitari for the more profound aspects of tennis and their captain.

"He's the captain."

While he could offer great insight into the workings of their captain, his answers were sometimes lacking the blunt clarity many required for understanding. Not really paying attention to the others, he continued to walk towards the clubhouse and sighed as if the dumbest question had been asked and he had wasted precious time on answering it.

"Uh, Hiyoshi-san…Are you okay?"

He looked out of the corner of his eye at the speaker. For standing so tall above the rest, Otori Choutarou always seemed so timid. Hiyoshi wondered what normal or abnormal childhood the other second year could have had to make him such a nice person in a team like Hyotei.

"Yes."

"…Oh, okay…Well, uh, see you around."

He bowed lightly as he went to join his doubles partner, Shishido Ryo. Hiyoshi was still fixated on the fact that Shishido had lost and was no longer a regular, yet here he was, still on the team as if nothing ever happened. Then again, he grudgingly admitted that by all rights, he should no longer be a regular, even if he was just the back up.

After a short walk, he arrived at the team's clubhouse and went inside. The others were already there changing or gathering up their belongings. At least, everybody was except for their volley specialist. Akutagawa Jiroh was another mystery added to the ranks of Hyotei. He was, as he often is, dead asleep on one of the benches.

Hiyoshi watched from the corner where his locker was located as Atobe grabbed Jiroh's tennis bag and let it drop on top of the sleeping boy. There was absolutely no response. In a sign of what could be interpreted as annoyance, the captain snapped his fingers.

"Usu."

The hulking form that is Kabaji Munehiro reached down and yanked Jiroh up by the collar of his jacket. Atobe motioned for him to make the sleeping boy face him. Without hesitation, Kabaji did as he was told.

"Jiroh!…Ore-sama needs to lock up…Wake up!…"

Hiyoshi wondered if perhaps, since they were not going to nationals, that Jiroh had lost any motivation. It did seem as though he was sleeping more often since the Kanto tournament. He would not put it past him since the only way Jiroh seemed to do anything was if he had some compulsory motivation or Atobe told him to do something.

Speaking of the captain, he looked as if he might slap the boy awake but instead, much to Hiyoshi's shock, he leaned forward and whispered something into his ear. The minute he finished his sentence, Jiroh's eyes sprang open and began wiggling out of Kabaji's grasp all the while having a goofy grin plastered on his face.

"Really, Atobe?!"

"Ore-sama speaks only the truth."

"Too cool. Okay, let's go!"

He grabbed his bag and practically sprinted out of the clubhouse. Atobe lightly shook his head and tossed Oshitari a set of keys.

"Lock up. Let's go, Kabaji."

"Usu."

As was always the case, the captain led the way while his large entourage silently and obediently followed behind. Hiyoshi scoffed at the two players who so readily obeyed Atobe mindlessly without any inspiration to turn the tables and become the ones at the top.

Now, he was left with the two doubles pairs. In his mind, it was better to be around the obedient servants than the overly mushy and affectionate doubles pairs. Alright, Hiyoshi admitted that only Shishido and Otori were that sentimental. But just because Oshitari and Gakuto did not outwardly show their fluff, it was obvious there was some kind of connection that he caught on to and did not really want to catch on. Hiyoshi sighed despite himself. Was he the only one who was normal?

"…What is with you today? You're too weird…"

Gakuto was staring strangely at him and he immediately turned his attention to the items in his locker in an attempt to ignore the commentary.

"Hurry up, I want to lock up and leave."

Ever the same cold, calculating, and arrogant Oshitari, Hiyoshi quickly stuffed his belongings into his bag and walked out with a huff.

The sun was beginning to set and a light breeze kicked up. He let the light wind blow through his hair for a few moments as he looked up at the sky. Studying the hues of orange and red, Hiyoshi sighed a little and then continued on his way.

The streets were filled with other students who were out enjoying their summer vacation. While he loved to play tennis, he could not stop that schoolboy mentality and be a little jealous at how carefree they all seemed. They got to enjoy their breaks, free from the stress of clubs and overly dramatic tennis captains. Not that he was bitter or anything.

No, he was bitterer about the Kanto tournament. Those results should not have happened. In retrospect, he did not think Atobe had even thought of that outcome. It was obvious from his match with Seigaku's captain, Tezuka Kunimitsu, that there were some things that not even the great Atobe Keigo could have predicted.

Then, there was that annoying shorty of a tennis player. That was the most irksome thing of the entire tournament in his opinion. Not only was the little brat a first year, he was obnoxious and overly confident. He was one of those people whom Hiyoshi would always overcome. However, the results of the match showed that there was no chance that he would be able to defeat Seigaku's saving grace.

As he walked along the street, he passed by a row of street courts. Normally, such things would not have caught his attention; however, on one of the courts was Atobe and Jiroh. Hiyoshi paused and watched the match down below.

Jiroh was merrily running around the court in an attempt to reach all the balls Atobe hit at him. So, that was what Atobe had to promise in order to get the volley specialist to get moving. Hiyoshi snorted at how easily Jiroh was swayed by the captain. Maybe, somewhere deep down, he was jealous.

Atobe never got after Jiroh for anything. The most he did was lightly scold the usually sleeping boy if he was not awake enough for a match. In Hiyoshi's opinion, it seemed like he got special treatment from the captain. As soon as that thought came, the second-year shook his head to stop the thought process.

"I don't need special treatment…I'll beat him on my own."

Too caught up in the moment of his planned overthrow, he failed to realize that many of the other pedestrians passing by were staring and whispering at him oddly. It was not until he sensed another presence hovering at a distance too close for comfort. He looked down and a small girl was looking up at him as if he had sprouted another head. The parent of the child quickly grabbed the girl by the hand and dragged her away hissing in her ear to stay away from scary strangers.

Shaking his head, Hiyoshi turned his attention back to the courts. For some unknown reason, he was mesmerized by the two tennis stars. Yes, Jiroh did seem to get away with more things, but still, he usually won all his matches. Actually, the previous match was the only time that he had lost. Unlike himself though, Jiroh was more excited and happy about his loss than he was.

It was humiliating. How come he did not realize that Echizen was left-handed when he had already played so many people? Atobe was usually good about providing information about their opponents, but said nothing about the boy's handiness. Chances were, he did know and just chose not to tell. He could see Atobe being that deliberately cruel to him.

Then again, how often would Hiyoshi accept any help? He was decidedly against it. He was perfectly capable of helping himself. That was probably why Atobe said nothing. But then…

"Shut up."

He growled his threat at himself and did not notice the person standing beside him.

"Who are you talking to?"

His head whipped around to face the speaker. His heart sank a little when he found Oshitari staring at him with a somewhat concerned expression. The last person he needed to see let alone the one person to catch him talking to himself was standing casually next to him.

"Nobody."

"…Alright."

While he was thankful that the genius did not press it, Hiyoshi still found himself slightly irritated with him. There was always something about Oshitari that he found disconcerting. As many times as he sees him, Hiyoshi, for the life of him, could not figure out what it was about Oshitari that grated against his nerves. It became the strongest when he watched him play. Between him and Atobe, Hiyoshi gradually became more irritable.

"Perhaps you need calcium."

Hiyoshi's eye twitched ever so faintly at the less than sympathetic remark. Oshitari was still standing right beside him and watching the courts. His eyes kept track of the balls movement as it flew from one side to the other. A small grin crept along his features much to Hiyoshi's irrational fear.

Even though he was one who enjoyed the silence of others, Oshitari was one of the few he did not enjoy. Hyotei's genius was not overly talkative, but his silences were sometimes suffocating. There was some air about him that sent the alarms off in Hiyoshi's head. He kept his discomfort hidden well, but he wondered if the other members ever felt the same way.

The pessimist inside of him made him believe that he was the only one. At least he knew Atobe did not seem to mind at all. That was the second person who could be silent and cause Hiyoshi to fidget. Between the two of them, their silences were sometimes almost unbearable. They both always seemed to know something that nobody else did, not to mention that they appeared to know each other fairly well too.

"You should practice with him sometime."

Hiyoshi about choked when he heard such words escape Oshitari's lips. He dare suggest that he should practice with him who would be overthrown? Unthinkable. There was no way he would allow such a thing to happen. The small grin grew wider on his face as he rolled his eye so that it stared at Hiyoshi lazily.

"It'll be a good experience."

He hoped that his upperclassman did not see him involuntarily shudder.

"Hey, Yuushi! Let's go!"

"It calls. See you later."

Oshitari waved over his shoulder as he walked over to his double's partner who was panting and carrying a text book in his hand. Apparently the acrobat forgot his books. Hiyoshi inwardly cursed the boy for doing such a dumb thing that resulted in alone time with the genius.

He suddenly lost his attention on the doubles pair and quickly spun around to the courts. There was that strange feeling that he was being watched. As he scanned the courts, everybody was in their place. Atobe and Jiroh were still running around the court.

Hiyoshi studied the captain. Atobe was solely fixated on returning the ball in a way so as to push Jiroh into different positions to expand his repertoire of volley techniques. However, he had the feeling that Atobe was the one who had stared at him. If Oshitari was unnerving with his demeanor and speech, Atobe was king in the staring department.

There was something about the way the diva could stare straight at a person as if piercing their very soul. Nothing escaped his oddly colored eyes. Hiyoshi idly wondered what color he could actually call Atobe's eyes. They were blue, but not any shade of blue that he had a word for. Not to mention, they seemed to almost change depending on his mood.

That was the other thing that was confusing and disturbing all at once. The captain's mood was at times unpredictable. For all his high fluting nonsense, he was one of the most calculating people Hiyoshi had ever met. Even if things appeared to be according to his plan, Atobe was known to still become upset for some unknown reason and then be in a foul mood. Then, something happens that most people would despair, he would break out into a manic laughter and from all appearances, enjoy himself.

At first, Hiyoshi thought that the captain was just one of those people who were the demented types who felt opposite of whatever they should feel. However, after further studying, he found that Atobe could react like any other person in his position. There was no set rhyme or reason.

His thoughts would have continued to dwell on his infuriating captain, but a loud blare of a car horn snapped him out of his reverie of doom. Hiyoshi kept from slapping himself for analyzing Atobe like that. He was the enemy. He was the one on the top that needed to be overthrown. He needed to be overthrown so Hiyoshi could take his place. That was the goal from the first day he joined the tennis team. Even when Atobe was still just a plain regular, Hiyoshi could care less about the captain's inner workings and was only determined to defeat him.

It then dawned on him. He knew why he was so frustrated today. He had a chance to finally show them all what he could do and instead, he gets humiliated by a first-year with attitude. There was so much left for him to do and to accomplish. There was no way Hyotei could have its downfall before then, but at the rate they were headed, that was going to be the case. He just needed one more chance to prove to them and to prove to Atobe that he was the only one who would defeat him and take his place as the rightful king.

_I'll be the one at the top…Gekokujou, Atobe…_

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**A/N:** In case anybody did not know, _gekokujou_ is Hiyoshi's catch phrase. Actually, I think he's like Tezuka and can only say that. Anyways, it basically means something along the lines of to defeat the higher and take his place. Ryoma makes a really snarky comment about that. I pity poor Hiyoshi. Really, I do. So, what did you think? While the humor is fairly cynical and sarcastic, it is much more subtle than I usually write. I kind of like writing like this. Anyhoo, I sincerely hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading.


	2. Question and Answer

**A/N:** Ah-ha, I return and I don't own PoT.

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_Nationals...We're still going to nationals...There's still a chance..._

"Now where the hell is Atobe?"

Hiyoshi, along with the other member of Hyotei, were currently searching for their self-proclaimed invincible captain. It struck him as odd that Atobe would not be present for the great news. At least, he hoped Atobe would think it was great news. With the captain, there was always a chance it would just set him off. Hiyoshi idly recalled Oshitari mumbling something about pride as they split up to search for them.

_Forget Atobe and his damn pride...We better be going to nationals..._

As he passed by the various athletic fields, he heard the thud of a tennis ball against a wall near the tennis courts. Realizing that the tennis captain would most likely be on a tennis court dawned on him at that moment.

When he approached the sound, he already saw Oshitari watching him. Shishido soon appeared among the stands along with Ootori and the others. In an energetic tone, Shishido shared the news.

"Hey, Atobe! We've been invited to nationals!"

A sinking feeling grew in Hiyoshi's chest as their normally boisterous captain was abnormally silent. His mouth was drawn into a thin line and his hair shaded his eyes. He snatched the ball he was hitting against the wall and kept his back turned. Hiyoshi decided he might as well drop down and beg as well, except he would not make it sound like it.

"We want to go to nationals regardless of the condition we're in! We have to pay back Seigaku!"

He hoped that part about Seigaku would be motivation enough for Atobe to agree. With perfect timing and in a humble begging manner, Ootori backed him up.

"Captain! Please!"

The others waited impatiently with pleading expressions. Atobe looked like he was about to say something causing everybody to hold their breath. Before he could tell them anything though, he was interrupted by the distant sound of cheering.

If there was any way to cure a grumpy Atobe, it was to feed his ego. Hiyoshi silently cheered the various Atobe worshipers for the first time. The captain turned around to face the school and the noise .

Beyond Hiyoshi's line of reasoning and imagination, there was suddenly an extremely large sign cheering on the Hyotei tennis team to nationals draped the length of the school wall. He was pretty sure that it was a bit overkill, but it did not matter at the moment. All that mattered was to get Atobe to agree to go to Nationals. The captain turned around and studied the entire school building filled with students hanging out of the windows and on the roof. They continued to cheer for their school. With the sound, Hiyoshi was unable to hear what Atobe mumbled exactly, but suddenly, he perked up when the diva of a captain raised his arm and snapped his fingers silencing the entire school. Smirk in place, Atobe returned to his egocentric ways.

"Come with me to Nationals!"

With that, the entire school burst into wild cheering and he stood comfortably in the sound of the cheering student body. The cheers of the Hyotei tennis members were drowned out from the other noise. Hiyoshi became far more thrilled and allowed himself a cheerful grin. For once, he could say that he was happy with his captain.

The cheering continued for a while longer before it began to die down as the teachers most likely began calling the students back in. Whoever came up with that idea was a genius and Hiyoshi wanted nothing more than to thank him or her. Before long, the Hyotei tennis team was left to themselves.

Shishido strolled up cheerily to Atobe and patted him on the back earning him a condescending glance. Hiyoshi always wondered what it was with those two. First, they already seemed to have known each other for a while and then, after Shishido lost his place, Atobe actually vouched for him. Within school or tennis or outside, those two seemed to have a love/hate relationship leaning more towards the hate end. Either way, Hiyoshi did not feel that chummy with his captain.

"Alright! We're going to take Nationals!"

"Only if you play better."

The short moment of camaraderie between the two was lost with Atobe's wonderfully simple, yet condescending tone. And back to routine, Shishido immediately jumped in on the captain and the two began a typical Atobe and Shishido argument with Ootori doing his absolute best to try and mediate but failing.

"Ore-sama is going to work you like dogs for Nationals."

A horribly sadistic shine gleamed in Atobe's eyes as he said that. The others just sighed, but nobody complained since they did have to agree with the hard practice. They were good, but it was more than clear with their last match with Seigaku that they were still lacking. Then there would be Rikkai. Hiyoshi did not know much about them, but from what he had heard, seen, and observed from Atobe and Sanada's interactions, it would not be an easy task.

"We'll start practice tomorrow. Make sure you're well rested."

The menacing and all-knowing tone of voice resulted in another small sigh from the team, but they agreed with him nonetheless.

"So, what do ya think the lineup is going to be?"

Gakuto bounced next to Oshitari who just adjusted his glasses and shrugged.

"Who knows? Knowing Atobe, there will definitely be a change though."

Shishido walked alongside Ootori and put his hands behind his head and stared at the sky lazily.

"He better not change it that much. It's not like we got _that_ much time."

Hiyoshi about gagged as he read between the lines. Shishido just did not want to be separated from Ootori. The effect was even worse since a light blush crept onto Ootori's cheeks. The reflex to roll his eyes was almost to great for Hiyoshi to stop, but it was not like it mattered that much since he took his normal spot in falling behind the rest.

"I bet Hiyoshi's hoping for a regular spot on the line up!"

The acrobatic player grinned smugly at him as he hopped around his usual doubles partner. Oshitari just gave a tiny smirk and chided Gakuto.

"Now now, Gakuto. We mustn't give the reserve players reason for or against being in the lineup."

Despite the fact that he was chiding his partner, Hiyoshi still had the feeling, like he usually does with the resident prodigy, that he was still being made fun of. However, he brushed it off like he always does and took his separate way to go home. There was still homework for him to complete even though he was far to excited to really concentrate on anything else.

The walk home was spent mainly imagining himself on the starting lineup and ultimately showing Atobe how great of a player he was as he absolutely crushed his opponent. Unfortunately, Hiyoshi noted he also had the tendency to let the captain's voice enter his head as well. It was like he was actually right there telling Hiyoshi not to suffer any delusions of grandeur.

"Stupid Atobe..."

He mumbled aloud as he walked in hopes to drown out the annoying voice. There was no way he was going to let Atobe or anybody else stop him from showing how true _gekokujou_ was. The sun was already setting when he let himself into his home and slipped off his shoes. His mother was in the kitchen most likely cooking dinner as the smell of food drifted to his nose.

Checking the clock, he noticed that there was still a little bit of time before dinner would be ready so he decided to take a shower and clean up. As he went upstairs to his room, he remembered that he failed to practice any of his _kata_ today and mentally slapped himself before reasoning that right now, preparing for nationals was more important.

Satisfied with his justification, Hiyoshi quickly undressed and slipped into the shower. He slowly lost track of time as the hot water rained down on him relaxing any of his tense muscles and seemingly melt away the worries.

After spending considerable time in the shower, Hiyoshi reluctantly stepped out and dried off. Just as he was tying his _yukata_, he heard his mother's voice call him to dinner.

"Coming."

He called back to her and quickly tossed his dirty clothing into the clothes hamper. Making his way downstairs, Hiyoshi found his family already seated. His mother was just finishing putting out the last part of the meal and sat down. Hiyoshi obediently took his seat.

"Thank you for the food."

His whole family spoke in unison and then they began eating in silence. It was not until about the middle of dinner did his mother break the silence.

"So, what was it that made you so happy today?"

Looking up from his food, Hiyoshi finished chewing and dutifully answered his mother.

"Hyotei is still going to nationals."

Hiyoshi's mother smiled while his father nodded approvingly. There was a sudden feeling of pride in having his parents recognize the importance and excitement for this new turn of events.

"Will you be playing?"

He thought about the answer and figured that he had a fairly decent chance if they were to determine the line up through matches or something else along those lines. He came up with the best answer he could think of and looked at his father.

"There's a good chance."

"That's wonderful! I suppose we should expect you to be a bit busy for a while?"

Yes, there was still the matter that he usually trained within the dojo with his father everyday, but with something as large scale as nationals along with schoolwork would most likely take him away from his normal tasks and duties.

"...Yes. Our captain is strict in training."

"Good. I expect you to work hard at your tennis and schoolwork."

Relief flooded Hiyoshi at his father's agreement to let him off the hook. He knew that his parents, particularly his father, held hard work and a certain amount of strictness to be key elements in one's lifestyle. There was that little part of him that knew that and was why he worded his response as such. Well, he could not feel bad since it was the truth.

Hiyoshi had no doubt that training would make his martial arts training look like a blessing. Atobe had a penchant for creating unique and sometimes, in his humble opinion, sadistic training regimes. He was fairly certain that he got some sort of twisted glee from making them do such things. However, Hiyoshi figured it could not be too bad since Atobe most likely would be participating himself. Then again, there was the unspoken conspiracy theory that Atobe was some sort of masochist and would actually enjoy doing horrific training exercises himse;. But then, that was merely a rumor that Hiyoshi hoped was based off of nothing.

"I'm done. Thank you."

He decided to cut his train of thought short by ending his meal. There was still much homework to be done and he would also like to have some time to meditate and clear out his mind. There was only so much about the nationals and Atobe he could take.

Slowly trudging up the stairs, Hiyoshi stepped into his room and closed the door. Walking over to his backpack, he pulled out the day's assignments and set them on his desk. He pulled out the chair and sat down while pulling out a pencil from one of the desk drawers.

"Math sucks..."

He mumbled to himself as he studied the abominable piece of paper and heavy as a boulder math book. Nothing good could come from math in his opinion. He certainly never used it in his martial arts or tennis. Well, there was keeping track of the score, but that hardly counts as math. As he began methodically scribbling out the formulas, gathering the information, and incorporating it into something coherent, Hiyoshi continued his mental rant of math.

Thinking of all his teammates, he tried to see if any of them used it for anything relative to them. As he processed all that limited information, there was no definitive answer; just like the accursed problem before him.

There were to many variables. Why do they never give anybody enough information? Supposedly, there was enough data to satisfy the proper variables, but as far as he was concerned, there was nothing else. Flipping through the pages of his book searching for some indication of what he should do, Hiyoshi grew increasingly more frustrated. Leave it to math homework to ruin a good mood.

After several long minutes scouring for some sort of answer, he angrily threw down his pencil and glared menacingly at his homework. He idly wondered if this was how Gakuto felt when he was attempting to do his math homework. However, Gakuto had Oshitari to help him. Who did he have? Nobody. Hiyoshi had to rely solely on himself to get through it. Even though he had long forgotten about the actual problem, he found himself growing increasingly frustrated.

All of the others seemed to have somebody who would help them or somebody they could get to help them. Hiyoshi could not say he could do that. He supposed he could technically do that, but it was more of a matter of pride than anything else. The only other person he figured did not need help with anything, was Atobe. The mere thought of how arrogant he would be if Hiyoshi admitted he needed assistance from him. Then again, there was that nagging feeling that Atobe most likely knew how to do it since he could apparently do anything.

He recalled seeing Atobe's homework before and noted that he must be in the most advanced math class for their grade since the problems looked like a blur of shapes, swirls, and letters. The captain could also complete said problems with a seemingly incredible ease that was more than enough to make anybody jealous.

Actually, there was plenty to make anybody be jealous of him. Atobe was the prime example of the perfect student with perfect grades, the perfect class president, and all the random language classes the school offered. The worst part in his opinion was that Atobe did everything as if it were second nature. Then, he joins one of the largest clubs at school and becomes the captain without really trying.

Hiyoshi scowled as he considered all the work he put into the team and all the sacrifices he made and still wound up a reserves player. While he entertained the idea that when it did come to using the reserves, he was the one they would all count on and therefore be the deciding factor, he still hated admitting that he was not an official regular; he was just the reserve.

He caught himself thinking such depressing and meaningless thoughts when he heard himself heave a fairly loud sigh. Shaking his head to free his mind of the torturous thoughts, Hiyoshi returned his attention back to the homework sitting in front of him.

"Dammit!"

Now, Hiyoshi was not normally one to curse outright since his parents instilled good manners into him, but as he looked over the math problem, he could not help it. It was as if he was looking at a different problem. It actually made sense and after glancing at the book, he realized that the answer to the problem was quite simple. He had misread the problem and in doing so, created a new type of math problem. On top of that, he looked at the pages in his book and saw an almost exact replica of the problem as an example.

There was nothing more that he wanted to do than slam his head against the desk. So, he did just that. Far too frustrated with his own oversight, he just gave into the feelings and let his head make a hollow thunk against the wooden desk.

"Is everything all right?"

His mother's voice came from the other side of the room's door. Hiyoshi sighed.

"Yes. Everything is fine..."

"...Okay."

He listened to his mother's footsteps disappear down the hallway before lifting his head back up and finding the strength to finish the remaining homework. Somehow, he did manage to find such strength and ignored the clock move painfully slow. Methodically working through the problems, Hiyoshi was interrupted by the sound of his cellphone.

Putting down his pencil, he pushed away from the desk and reached over to his phone. He about fell out of his seat when he read the number.

_Why would he be calling?..._

"Hello?"

"_Hiyoshi, there will be a sort of pre-practice tomorrow at the school courts."_

"Understood."

"_...Would it kill you to show a little more enthusiasm?...Ah-ha, you must be trying to hide that you're ecstatic since ore-sama has generously interrupted the monotonous drone of gloom that is your life."_

"Good-bye Atobe...Um..."

"_'Um?' What is it that makes you hesitate so, Hiyoshi."_

Hiyoshi gritted his teeth. Why could he not just be normal and ask what was wrong like normal junior high students? Not to mention the tone of voice, that syrupy voice that was somewhat condescending and far too sly.

"...May I...ask you a question?"

"_Of course. It is only natural you would seek out ore-sama's brilliant mind."_

He cursed to himself. Never in his mind did he plan on asking Atobe for help on the final math question. While he was talking with him, the problem came up and this time Hiyoshi was sure that the answer was not obvious. There was nothing more that he wanted than to be done with his homework and if it meant stooping low and asking help from his tennis captain, then so be it.

"_The answer is quite simple."_

"I haven't told you the problem."

"_Does not exist. The answer is that it does not exist. It's a trick question."_

"...I still haven't told you the problem."

"_Ore-sama already knew what the question was."_

There was a long pause as Hiyoshi slowly processed the information. His eyes went wide as he thought about the random idea he fancied during one of his classes. Atobe had ESP. That was the only way he could know. No, there had to be a different answer. While it was not beyond the realm of Atobe's little world, it was definitely impossible in his.

"How?"

"_Ore-sama took that class once. The teacher always does that. Chances are, there will soon be a call from Ootori. He's taking that class as well, right?"_

"Uh, yeah."

"_Normally, ore-sama would have made you think about it yourself, but that problem is just cheap tricks to amuse the boring lives of the school's teachers."_

The events of the day plus the stress of homework must have been having strange effects on him. If he was listening correctly, Atobe was actually having a semi-normal conversation with him.

"Does Ootori ask questions often?"

"_Why does it matter? As a matter of fact, he does...unlike some people. Ore-sama's brilliance is beyond the imagination. Ask what you will with your math."_

It would have been easy enough to end the conversation right there, yet Hiyoshi found himself continuing his talk.

"Why is that the answer?"

"_Do you really want to know?"_

"Yes."

"_Very well, ore-sama will amuse your request. There are too many unaccounted for variables in which, even if there were more numbers, would still not work. Keep in mind that many aspects of math and numbers are still only in theory. I'm sure there are parts you are able to solve with the given formulas. However, there would be no way for you to know that such a number cannot exist since the line will not exist at any point at that given limit. It will continually increase or decrease, but will never become that limiting number at any point. Therefore, it does not exist at that exact point."_

"...What the hell?"

"_You asked. Though I do share your sentiment since you're in something akin to algebra, yes? Such a ridiculous question at that level. Any other morsels of information you would like from ore-sama?"_

"No...Thanks..."

"_Incredible. Hiyoshi actually thanked ore-sama. Don't forget though, tomorrow, practice, eight a.m."_

"Understood."

The other end of the line went dead and Hiyoshi slowly folded his phone and set it on his bed. He regarded it with a blank stare for a while. It took a few moments for him to accept that he just had a civil conversation with Atobe that was not about tennis. No matter what he thought, he needed to get the answer down and have the homework done with as soon as possible.

Quickly jotting down the answer, Hiyoshi happily slammed his book shut and placed the homework and book in his bag for school. The difficult homework was out of the way and he had time to spare. Checking the clock, he saw that he still had little over an hour for meditating.

Turning off the lights in his room, Hiyoshi stepped quickly and quietly to the small dojo attached to the house. The large room was devoid of life and sound and perfect for clearing the mind. He walked to the center of the room and knelt on the floor. With a large, deep breath Hiyoshi relaxed and closed his eyes.

For the first half hour or so, he was quite proud that he managed to keep his mind relatively blank, but after hearing the house phone ring in the background brought back memories of his phone call with Atobe.

His mind attempted to process the previous phone call. There was no way to determine what was more of a shock, Atobe agreeing to answer the question with relatively little condescending undertones or his answer. All pompous formality was lost when he went into his explanation and Hiyoshi was impressed or surprised at the clarity of the response. It was short and to the point, hardly the normal for somebody like the Hyotei captain. Atobe knew exactly what he was talking about and everything about his response let those who heard it know it. Hiyoshi found himself grudgingly admitting that there was something admirable in Atobe's confidence. Maybe there was an advantage to entertaining Atobe's ego after all.

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**A/N:** I don't like math. Yes, Hiyoshi is still a second year making him something around an eighth grader so he should be in something like algebra, right? I dunno, I just know that I was in that (I think) at that time. Well, I remember one time when I was in pre-algebra my teacher gave me a question like that. Seriously, you don't do limits until calculus. And no, it was not a completely random insertion. Well, enough on that, thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed!


	3. Practice at the Park

**A/N:** So, a new chapter up. Not a whole lot to say here, so I won't say much. Ha. Anyways, for thsoe of you who know about Nationals, then you can kind of guess the purpose of this chapter is. I swear, they made things difficult. But enough of that, on with the show!

I don't own PoT

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The day was bright and sunny. The kind of day that was perfect for tennis. At least, that was what Hiyoshi thought at first when he woke up. As instructed, he ate breakfast, got dressed, gathered his things, and was out the door with plenty of time to spare. It was not a long walk from his house to the park where they would be practicing and there was still time, the second year decided to get in some early exercise and jog there.

On the way, he ran into a few people though there really were not that many since it was the time of the week where most people finally got to sleep in. No such luck for him, but seeing as how wonderful a day it was, Hiyoshi thought anybody still indoors now was insane.

When he arrived, Oshitari and Gakuto were already there with the latter currently climbing a tree.

"I'm not going to catch you when you fall."

"Psh, who says I'm gonna fall?"

Hiyoshi shook his head at the two. They were a couple of the oddest people he knew and considering all the players within the Kanto region, that was saying something. Oshitari continued to indirectly urge Gakuto to fall while the acrobat continued to climb insisting that he was the best there is. As he walked over to them, he suddenly tripped over something on the ground. He checked to see what the stumbling block was, and he wished he could say that he was surprised. Jiroh was sleeping peacefully on the grass using his tennis bag for a pillow. Hiyoshi silently wondered when the third year arrived and how long he had been sleeping. It did not matter though, soon, Atobe and the others would be arriving and they would soon begin their training. Nothing else mattered now since Hyotei needed to be at the top of their game for nationals.

"Shishido-san, you really shouldn't say things like that."

"Everything's cool here, Choutarou."

The urge to grumble and gag was almost overwhelming when he heard the two talk. Shishido and Otori were giggling like school girls as they approached the others. Hiyoshi constantly had to fight the urge to blurt out how annoying it was. However, being a disciple of self-control, he refrained. As far as he understood, Shishido and Otori did not live close to each other nor were their houses on the way. Therefore, there should be no reason for those two to always arrive together and be giggling over something.

"Good morning everybody!"

Chirpy and kind as always, Otori managed to stop what he was talking about with his doubles partner long enough to form a greeting.

"Good. Everybody is here."

All heads turned to see Atobe strutting towards them with Kabaji following right behind. Hiyoshi frowned even deeper when he noticed that Atobe was carrying an extra bag. It had to contain some sot of torture device since the looming second year had both their tennis bags.

"Today, we're going to be doing drills. Before the actual tennis, we need to be in the best shape possible and in order to do so, I created some training regimes."

The tennis regulars managed to stay silent, but Hiyoshi could tell that they were eerie of what Atobe had in mind. It was no rarity for him to come up with something he dubbed brilliant while others dubbed it sadism. He would then tell them that it was simply a matter of semantics.

"I hope none of you have plans since this is going to take all day...Jiroh, wake up!"

He nudged the volley specialist with the tip of his shoe and was miraculously enough to wake him up. Jiroh sat up groggily and looked up at Atobe.

"Oh, what are we doing now?"

"Drills."

"Do we have to?"

"Yes."

A not so subtle sigh escaped his lips causing Atobe to pinch the bridge of his nose. He said nothing but dropped the bag he was carrying on the ground and everybody slightly jumped when it made a clunk and clink.

"Uh, Atobe, what's in the bag?"

Shishido pointed with a combination of fear and disgust at the bag. Hiyoshi was glad that that Shishido always had enough guts to ask the question everybody had, but nobody wanted to ask. Nothing good could come out of this, not with Atobe.

"You'll find out soon enough. No need to be so anxious. First, stretch out. Ore-sama does not want to hear complaints about pulled muscles or other. Pair up and go at it."

The first two pairs were obviously made up the minute Atobe said "pair up" as the two sets of doubles immediately went for each other. In an odd turn of events, Atobe more or less threw Jiroh at Kabaji while he walked over to Hiyoshi.

"Don't look so surprised. Ore-sama is more than happy to grace you with my presence."

Hiyoshi involuntarily shuddered when he said that. Swallowing that wave of discomfort, he began stretching out his legs while Atobe did the same. After methodically going through each of his limbs, Hiyoshi sat on the ground and stretched out his legs into a v-position. Atobe came up behind him and began applying a little pressure on his back in order to help him stretch a little further. As he allowed himself to be pretty much shoved onto the ground, he looked at the others. Oshitari was making some snide remark resulting in Gakuto attempting to push down unnecessarily hard on his back. Ever the perfect duo, Shishido and Otori were apparently getting more joy out of this than most people would. And then there was Kabaji and Jiroh. Hiyoshi let out a small snort when he saw those two. Jiroh was attempting to push down on Kabaji's back except he was practically sitting on top of him and bouncing in an attempt to apply enough pressure.

After a few more minutes of stretching in multiple directions, it was time to switch. While Hiyoshi began to help Atobe stretch, he idly wondered how the vain captain would even sit on the ground without some silk lining beneath him. Instead, he was in the same position as everybody else. Speaking of which, Hiyoshi also noticed that Atobe was fairly flexible. He applied more and more pressure and Atobe just became gradually more parallel and closer with the ground.

"Alright. Now, it's time for the fun. Kabaji!"

"Usu."

Ever the yes man, Kabaji opened the bag and pulled out the first item. Simple enough, it was a standard rope ladder and Hiyoshi figured it was a typical device to practice agility and speed. Then, he pulled out a few weights. Again, nothing too shocking since this was to build strength and endurance. Atobe then looked over at Jiroh.

"Jiroh, did you bring it?"

"Yup!"

He bounced over to the base of one of the trees and picked something up from off the ground. Bounding back over, he handed it to Atobe. Okay, now there was something a little unconventional. A hula hoop was definitely something new. A few ideas floated across his mind as to what it could be used for, but no real answer came up.

"So, why the hoop?...Ooh! Are we going to practice hula hooping?"

"...No Jiroh."

Atobe flung the hoop like a person would at a ring toss game except, instead of a prize, the object it encircled was Jiroh.

"Too bad. I'm really good at it."

"Yes Jiroh. Kabaji, continue."

"Usu."

The next object pulled from the bag was a long length of rope. That dreadful sinking feeling that develops in the pit of the stomach was never a good sign to Hiyoshi. He just hoped that whatever else was in the bag, it did not involve Popsicles. The last time Atobe decided to be creative in drills, it ended with a mess of Popsicles, rope, and cones. There was no way he could explain to his mother why he had a Popsicle stick in his hair a second time.

The final object was definitely something he had never seen in all his years of practice. It appeared to be a harness and bungee cord. Hiyoshi pondered the mystery surrounding the objects and the bag they were all pulled from. He was slightly surprised to know that Atobe was the one who carried it. Judging from the various objects' weights, it must have been fairly heavy and Hiyoshi was sure that the diva would have made Kabaji carry it. Then again, this was Atobe and it was never a good idea to question him in any form or manner.

"That should do it. Let's begin."

Hiyoshi looked around at the others who were also glancing at each other warily. It seemed as though they were all slightly concerned at why certain objects were present. However, nobody complained since it would all be lost on Atobe and chances were, it would make him angry in some way or another causing even more of his judgment to rain down upon them. Hiyoshi just swallowed his growing concern and did as he was instructed.

They were split into groups with each taking turns at various stations. Each stop had one of the objects and of course, they worked on drills. For the most part, each exercise was straight forward enough though far more difficult than he imagined. But again, Hiyoshi recalled that this was Atobe and he would undoubtedly find a way to make even the simplest things overly difficult. After the first station, Hiyoshi could already feel his muscles being pushed to their limits. However, he knew that meant there was room for improvement so he continued to try his hardest and push himself further.

Now, while going through the other stations, he had constantly been wondering about the hula hoop. Apparently, Atobe decided it would make a nice jump rope minus the rope. At first, Hiyoshi imagined that it would be easy since there really was not that much of a difference. How wrong he was. Never had he experienced the pain and humiliation of attempting to jump rope with a hula hoop. When he asked Atobe the purpose, he got some sort of semi-answer.

"It helps with precision and it is so entertaining to watch."

At that, Hiyoshi suddenly tripped himself by sweeping the hoop to high and knocking his feet from beneath him. A small chuckle escaped Atobe.

"Hmph. Let's see you try."

He thrust the hoop to Atobe who gingerly took it with one hand and carefully stepped inside of it while still holding onto it. Placing his two hands side by side, he began to rhythmically made circular motions bringing it over his head and underneath his feet. Like with everything else, he make it look disgustingly easy. Hiyoshi studied the method in order to see what he was doing wrong. The first thing he noticed was that Atobe was not moving as fast as he had tried to and seemed to be making a rhythmic pattern that let him jump perfectly in time so his feet never got caught on the hoop.

"Ore-sama no bigi ni yoina!"

He exclaimed his ever present catch phrase as he made a final triumphant jump through the hoop and held it out to Hiyoshi who just grunted.

"Alright, switch!"

They were finally arriving at their final station. It was now time for the bungee cord. Despite the initial fear, Hiyoshi was actually more curious and eager to try it. He watched as Atobe waltzed over to the harness and slipped it on. After making sure it was secure, he handed the other end of the bungee cord to Hiyoshi.

"Hold on tight to it. Keep your feet like that...Good. Now pay attention."

Atobe suddenly got into a ready position, minus the racquet, and began running after an imaginary ball to the side court. He ran until the cord was pulled tight and Hiyoshi pulled back on it to keep from shifting. Then, he repeated the movement by rushing to the other side. Again, Hiyoshi had to dig in his heels in order to keep from moving. Back and forth he went while Hiyoshi kept watching.

He was actually impressed with the idea. Not only did it build strength, but endurance, speed, and control. It basically worked on everything. After making multiple runs, Atobe finally let himself approach the baseline letting the line loose. Taking off the harness, he then passed it to Hiyoshi.

"Your turn. Make sure you pull against it enough, otherwise it's meaningless."

Easy enough. Hiyoshi had payed closed attention when Atobe had done it and it did not seem overly complicated. He strapped himself in and then looked back at his captain who nodded and smirked.

"Run."

Turns out, running around attached to a bungee cord is not all that easy after a while. At first, it did not seem that bad, but after a few runs back and forth, trying to pull against the tension became exponentially more difficult. Just when he thought he could not go another time, Hiyoshi felt the cord go lax.

"Good. Everybody! Lunch break!"

With an easy snap of his fingers, all the regulars ceased what they were doing and watched, with never ending disbelief when two butlers and maids appeared from over a hill. Hiyoshi slowly felt his eye begin to twitch. He, like the others, had brought something to snack on during the day, but leave it to Atobe to bring his staff to serve them lunch.

They climbed the small hilltop and found a large blanket on the ground covered with food. The spread was nothing over the top like he tended to do at his "cottages," but rather, consisted of natural energy foods that were filling and most likely tasty too. Hiyoshi was surprised to find no separate table set up for Atobe since he figured the diva would not deign to sit on the ground with the commoners. Then again, there was no doubt that the captain was, to put it mildly, quirky. Soon, they were all sitting comfortably on the blanket devouring the food in front of them.

"Afterwards, we'll begin tennis matches."

Jiroh seemed to perk up when he heard that. He scooted closer to Atobe and began tugging at his sleeve.

"Hey, hey, hey! Atobe, am I gonna play with you?"

Hiyoshi about choked on his bite of food as he listened to Jiroh go on about how great it was when he got to play tennis with Atobe. He had to keep from snorting at it. What was so great about playing against him anyways? If anything else, it was potentially detrimental to a person's health.

"No, you'll be playing Kabaji. Speaking of which, Kabji."

"Usu."

"Hit hard and keep Jiroh at baseline. You need to practice your approach when an approach shot is impossible."

"Usu."

"Right."

While he agreed, some of the spunk Jiroh had vanished into thin air as he began yawning. Hiyoshi rolled his eyes and continued to eat. After filling himself up, but not to much, he thanked Atobe for the food, stood up, and stretched.

"You'll practice with me today."

He did a double take when he heard Atobe calmly instruct him on the next portion of the practice. In all the two years he had been on the tennis team, Hiyoshi realized he never once had played against Atobe. It was not an official match, nor any type of challenge, but it was perhaps the golden opportunity to show the captain why he, Hiyoshi, was going to take over. The excitement built up inside of him as he studied his captain. Atobe did not seem interested in the least, and a part of Hiyoshi understood that it was most likely because Atobe wanted to see where his weak points were and correct them. However, that still gave him the chance to prove himself.

_Not that I need to..._

Shaking his head to dispel the unwanted thought, Hiyoshi nodded his head at Atobe and began stretching while the others finished up. It did not take long for the food to be cleared away and for the regulars to take hold of their racquets. As they walked over to the courts nearby, Atobe stopped and studied the group from behind. Hiyoshi noticed this and looked over his shoulder. He wondered what was going on in that head.

"Jiroh."

"Huh?"

"What happened?"

"Happen?"

"Your ankle."

"What are you talking about, Atobe?"

Jiroh smiled innocently at Atobe who continued to stare with a sort of detached, analytical eye. By now, the others had stopped as well and were watching the little exchange. After closer examination, it became clear that Jiroh was trying to lie to Atobe and if there was one thing that everybody was in awe of, it was their captain's insight.

"...Jump."

"Uh, okay."

The volley specialist hopped up and landed on the ground with no problem, though Hiyoshi thought he saw something odd about the landing. He decided to wait to see if Atobe noticed anything. Of course he noticed.

"See? Nothing's wrong!"

"Why did you land with your weight on your left foot?"

"'Cause I always do."

Atobe smirked causing Jiroh's smile to falter a bit and gulp.

"No, you always put your weight on your right."

All heads swiveled to see the shorter boy's reaction. He chuckled nervously.

"It's nothing really. Just something I did in gym class a little while ago...I mean, uh, it was just recently...uh, it's fine, nothing's wrong at all!"

Their captain remained skeptical and kept his gaze fixed on Jiroh making him shift uncomfortably.

"Don't-"

"Waa! Atobe!! It's fine. It was just a little sore after running around and I'm sure a little exercise will do it good. Besides, I promise I won't overdo it or anything today. Pleeeease!"

A deep sigh escaped Atobe's lips as he studied the pleading boy clinging helplessly onto the front of his shirt. After several minutes of silence on his part, he finally conceded.

"Kabaji, keep an eye on him..."

"Usu."

Now that that was settled, it was time to start the matches and take one step closer to fulfilling his philosophy of _gekokujou_.

The remaining members were split with Otori against Gakuto and Shishido playing Oshitari. The Hyotei tennis team pretty much took over the public courts and used them all for their matches. As the started playing, it drew a small crowd of spectators. Hiyoshi had to wait a little longer since Atobe wanted to make sure everybody was doing what they were supposed to be doing.

"Shall we begin?"

"Of course."

Hiyoshi served first, using a simple topspin serve which Atobe returned easily. They began to rally back and forth with the captain creating impossible angle shots and overall, just controlling the game play. It was slightly annoying how Atobe was playing only in a way as to study him and teach him. That meant that Hiyoshi was not good enough if the object he wished to overcome was giving him pointers on how to play a better game. Granted, Hiyoshi was not playing at his full power since it was just a practice, but he was still trying. Atobe did not seem to be trying at all. In fact, he appeared to be studying not only Hiyoshi, but the others as well, particularly, Jiroh. Hiyoshi grumbled. If he was going to push him around, Atobe could at least have the decency to put all his attention on manipulating him and not the others. It was impossible for him to ever get his captain's full attention.

Thus, the day wore on with nothing overly exciting occurring except for the random yelling that came from the general direction of Gakuto and Shishido. It was a good thing their doubles partners were nearby to placate them into silence again. Speaking of silence, Hiyoshi was suddenly frozen in mid-swing when there was a loud yelp from the other courts.

Atobe jogged over to the source of the sound. Hiyoshi followed at a slightly slower pace. When he approached, he found Jiroh rolling around on the ground whining and whimpering while clutching his leg.

"Stop...moving so much...Gr, Kabaji!"

"Usu."

The captain had tried to hold Jiroh still but the smaller boy was persistent. It took a firm grip from the towering second-year to keep him still and allow Atobe to examine the injury. After some light poking and prodding, grumblings and whimpers, the Hyotei diva stood up and sighed.

"Sprained. What happened to taking it easy, aan?"

"I was!...Kinda...but I saw this great window of opportunity to try something new, but when I did, my ankle suddenly started hurting really baaaad."

Somehow, only as Jiroh was capable of, he was able to explain something while complaining about it. To his credit, a sprained ankle was painful, but what was more painful, was the fact that there might not be a chance for the volley specialist to play in nationals. Though, at the moment, that did not seem to be bothering him, but then, not a whole lot seemed to bother him. Hiyoshi imagined how upset he would have been if he were in Jiroh's position. For all he knew, Jiroh really was upset or maybe it would set in later. It was anybody's guess and not really his place to question.

"We'll call it an end for today. Tomorrow, practice resumes on schedule. And for you..."

Hiyoshi was surprised once again when Atobe offered his hand to Jiroh who grabbed it and was pulled up to his feet. With some maneuvering, Atobe was able to drape the shorter boy's arm around his shoulder and help take the weight off his injury.

"Kabaji, tell them to bring the car around."

"Usu."

He jogged off to find the servants that seemed to be hiding all around the park while Atobe began to slowly lead Jiroh towards the parking lot leaving the others behind.

"Why'd he let Jiroh play? You knew he would do something stupid and hurt himself."

"You really shouldn't say things like that."

Gakuto huffed and crossed his arms while Otori seemed distracted at the prospect of an injured companion. At least, that was what Hiyoshi thought. In his mind, Otori was like the towering black sheep Hyotei. As always, he was concerned about the others just like when Shishido begged to be let back on the team. Oshitari stood silently next to them studying the situation.

"Well, today certainly was interesting. I am curious as to how this will play out."

As was his usual style, Oshitari appeared to be talking more to himself than to anybody in particular. And because of that, nobody knew what to make of it. Hiyoshi had his guesses, but that was all that they were, simple guesses. They could stand there all day trying to reason out that little fiasco, but that would get them nowhere.

"See you tomorrow."

Oshitari waved over his shoulder as he slowly sauntered off followed closely behind by Gakuto. Shishido and Otori were next to leave and as predicted, walked together even though there was no real reason for them to. That left Hiyoshi to himself and to gather his thoughts.

Even though he got to play a little bit with Atobe, there was nothing satisfying about since the captain's attention was divided among the other players. Then, Jiroh's little accident ended the practice a little early and now, after today's practice, there was a good chance Atobe had already formulated a plan and would begin to make them practice it. That meant Hiyoshi was hard pressed for a chance to play against Atobe again. It was not fair, he decided. All he needed was one moment. One moment to prove his worth.

_Wait...why should I prove anything to him of all people?...No, I don't need to prove anything...all I need to concentrate on is overthrowing the upper...Yes, that's all I need to think about..._

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**A/N:** Poor Jiroh hurt his ankle. I needed some sort of excuse to get him out of the picture. Well that sounded mean...Oh well, it was a noble sacrifice. You know, I just realized that this is going to be a bit longer than originally anticipated. Now that I know much more about Nationals, more explaining needs to be done. But anways, I just hope you enjoyed reading!


	4. Lunch and Pencils

**A/N:** Long time no see! I updated...finally. I finally got back into the groove of things. Anyways, this is a longer chapter than usual. I had fun with it. Anyways, please read and enjoy!

I don't own PoT.

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When the sun rose, Hiyoshi wanted to do nothing but curse out the invasive light and go back to sleep. As he shifted in his bed, he let out a low growl as he felt a strain crawl up his body from sore muscles. It was an outrage. He, Hiyoshi Wakashi, was aching from a single day of training even though his body was in peak form from his martial arts.

"Atobe…"

The name came out more as a venomous hiss than anything else. He sincerely hoped that the egotistical captain was suffering miserably somewhere in that ostentatious palace he called a home as well. Images of Atobe being miserable and suffering made Hiyoshi unconsciously smirk, but then, other images slowly crept into his happy fantasy. He could see Atobe sitting proudly at a grand oak desk writing out a new training regime that would put the military to shame, all while laughing haughtily with sparkles to top it all off. It made him involuntarily shudder.

The sun became brighter and soon birds began chirping. After some internal debate, Hiyoshi finally slid out of bed and grunted as stiff muscles protested at being used. Taking some time before getting ready, Hiyoshi began a simple _kata_ that helped stretch out his limbs and make his body more readily movable.

After finishing, he found his body easier to move and was in a far better mood as he made his way to the bathroom and took a shower. He spent a little longer under the hot spray letting the water pelt his still somewhat sore muscles.

Knowing that his mother would be calling him down to breakfast shortly, Hiyoshi reluctantly turned off the hot water and dried off. He neatly dressed himself in the school uniform making sure nothing was out of line. After checking himself in the mirror and being satisfied with the results, Hiyoshi exited his bedroom and walked to the table.

"Good morning."

"Good morning, dear."

His mother cheerily set down his plate of food as he pulled out the chair and took a seat. He stared at the contents of his plate and was pleased at what he found. It was a simple breakfast of a couple eggs set on top of some toast and a small salad. A cool glass of orange juice accompanied the meal making it all the more complete. After saying his thanks, Hiyoshi happily dug into the food. He was mildly surprised at how hungry he was. Then again, it was reasonable since he worked all day and did not eat much dinner do to fatigue. As he thought about it, the previous feelings of animosity towards Atobe came back full swing. With a scowl, Hiyoshi quickly shoved the remains of his breakfast into his mouth and washed it down with the rest of his juice. Making sure to properly thank his mother, he went back to his room to collect his school bag and went to the entrance to put on his shoes.

"I'm going to school."

"Have a good day!"

Hiyoshi shut the door behind him as he took a moment to stretch once more. Within a few moments, he was ready, took a deep breath, and headed off to school. He walked quickly to the train station checking his cell phone for the time every so often. There was no need to rush and besides, he did not want to get too hot or sweaty from the heat before he got to tennis practice.

Making it to the platform with time to spare, Hiyoshi began to slowly walk the length of the home platform trying to keep his muscles moving so they would not become stiff again. As he did, he passed by an old man with a newspaper. With a discreet glance, he was able to see the weather report. The numbers made him mentally cringe at the thought of having to keep up tennis training in the heat. The days were quickly approaching summer break and that also meant the temperatures would be rising. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the train approaching. Stepping into the train car, Hiyoshi was crushed between the morning crowds of business men. The close proximity of all the passengers made Hiyoshi all the more aware of the heat.

The train ride was only a few stops, but Hiyoshi felt like it was taking forever. At the second stop, he was polite and stood up to allow an elderly woman take his seat. With a small smile, the little old lady rummaged in her purse for a few seconds before procuring a piece of hard candy. She happily held it out to Hiyoshi who politely refused the sweet, but after her request to take it, he accepted it with a humble thanks.

When he finally reached hist stop, Hiyoshi let himself be shoved off the train by the flow of people flooding out of the car. Making sure to exit at the right exit, he walked a short distance and soon stood in front of the large gateway leading to Hyotei Gakuen.

"Good morning Hiyoshi-san. Yesterday was a bit of a rough day, huh?"

Ohtori Choutarou cheerily came up beside Hiyoshi and would occasionally wave to a fellow student. How he could be so happy in the morning was beyond his understanding.

"Can't wait to see what _that_ guy comes up with today..."

Never one to be deterred by anybody's negative outlook, the taller of the two smiled good- naturedly and nodded his head.

"I'm sure Atobe-san will be his usual self."

Hiyoshi could never understand his teammate, Ohtori. Regardless of the situation, and especially regardless of the individual, Ohtori remained positive and always thought about the other person. While those qualities were praised, at least form what he could gather, they did not seem so beneficial for their school or for the illustrious tennis club. Yet there he stood with a more than decent class standing and more impressively, a solid spot on the regulars of the tennis team.

"Well then, I'll see you for practice!"

"Right. Bye."

Ohtori gave him one more smile before going down another hallway while Hiyoshi walked down another. Upon entering the classroom, he walked over to his desk and sat down. He glanced at the classroom clock and began taking out his school utensils. With perfect timing, the bell dinged and donged when the clock arms hit seven and the first teacher entered the room.

The teacher slowly pulled out the textbook for the class and set it on the table up front. It seemed like forever for the instructor to set everything up. When he finally began, Hiyoshi subtly shifted his position, trying to find the best way to prevent total stiffness. He had a feeling it would be difficult to remain still during this period.

"And that is all."

One period down, too many more to go. As the teacher left the room, Hiyoshi risked moving his body and found that it was stiff. He took the short time between the teacher switch to stand up and stretch out his muscles once again. Just as he was finishing, the next teacher entered the room. He reluctantly sat down knowing he would be stiff again by the end of the period.

"Let's begin."

And so, the next period began. It was just as thrilling as the first and kept the same break-neck pace all day long. By fourth period, Hiyoshi was at about breaking point. Not only had the morning seemed to drag on forever, the fourth period was math. Math was an evil machination of boring dead people with too much time to do anything productive. At least, that was Hiyoshi's attitude. They turned in their homework and then learned something new. It was something that he was not completely sure of, but would learn soon enough from the overabundance of homework they were assigned. For Hiyoshi, he finally understood one thing, then math threw something new. Those cursed limits were a pain enough. He wanted to believe that they would disappear, but sadly, he would have to believe it.

"Your assignments will be due at the end of the week when we will have a quiz on Friday."

Everybody in the room slumped their shoulders in defeat at the work they had to do. Never was that bell sounding so beautiful as that moment right then. Sitting through those classes and enduring the suffering of algebra worked up an appetite. Lunch was such a wonderful thing. Moving with all the other students, Hiyoshi eagerly grabbed his bag and _bento_ and headed for the music room. He was glad that their coach granted them permission to use his music classroom as the cafeteria and other rooms were too crowded.

"Don't you look happy today, aan?"

Hiyoshi had to stop himself from shuddering and scowling. He did good on the first, but had a more difficult time with the latter. Atobe smirked as he leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms.

"Much better. Such a frown is more suiting to you, Hiyoshi. Ore-sama was concerned for your well-being when you entered in such an elated state."

He growled out his response as he walked over to take a seat next to Ohtori.

"It was a good mood that was ruined by you, Atobe-_buchou_."

Ignoring the less than honorable suffix, the diva rested his chin on his palm.

"Ruined? Ore-sama does not ruin anything. Ore-sama merely asked as to what was the source of your apparent merriment. It was you who ruined your own mood."

Sometimes, it was impossible to maintain sanity while talking with Atobe. Hiyoshi found that the best policy in dealing with Hyotei's tennis captain was to just remain silent. It usually worked well, but like everything, it was sometimes a double-edged sword. Hiyoshi's silence was then at the mercy of everybody else's interpretation.

"Haha, Atobe got you on that one."

Gakuto pointed at Hiyoshi with his chopsticks with a grin.

"Now, now, Gakuto, that might not be true."

The door shut as Oshitari and Shishido walked into the room and sat down. Shishido took a seat on the other side of Ohtori while Oshitari sat between Gakuto and Atobe. The tennis genius of Hyotei was a wonderful addition as he seemed to balance all the others' cruel insanity.

"He could just not have anything smart to retort with."

At least, he could be that way, sometimes. Apparently, today was a day for everybody to gang up on Hiyoshi. He grumbled quietly to himself in between bites of food.

"Ore-sama has once again awed another into complete silence."

At that comment, Hiyoshi began choking on the wad of rice in his mouth. Ohtori, saint of Hyotei that he was, was polite enough to slap his back to help dislodge the food. After gulping down his tea and then inhaling air, Hiyoshi glared incredulously at Atobe who was smirking triumphantly.

"I don't even want to dignify a response to that."

"In other words, ore-sama is right."

Hiyoshi was positive that Atobe did not even really listen to other people. No matter what anybody says, he always takes it as an admission to his supposed greatness. It was what kept Hiyoshi's mouth shut. The last thing he wanted to do was feed the already inflated ego of a narcissist.

"Whatever Atobe..."

Fortunately, the captain opted not to reply as he was suddenly distracted by Jiroh who was currently dozing off with his chopsticks still in his mouth. He was supporting his head with one hand and the arm that said hand was attached to began encroaching on Atobe's personal space.

"Oi! Jiroh, wake up!"

Atobe snapped his fingers a few centimeters in front of the other boy's face. The loud snap caused Jiroh's eyes to fly open as he quickly stood up and looked around frantically. The force of his movement sent his lunch airborne.

"I'm not sleeping again!...Eh, Atobe?"

"Please try to stay awake long enough to chew and swallow. Ore-sama does not want to be responsible for your demise by suffocation."

The other members were dead silent as each was doing their best not to laugh. Jiroh was the only one who started laughing. A small tick developed under Atobe's eye.

"Ore-sama does not want you to suffocate...because ore-sama wants the pleasure of doing that!"

The captain of the Hyotei tennis club stood up and loomed over Jiroh who was torn between being afraid and wanting to laugh. Bits of rice and vegetables clung stubbornly to Atobe's usually perfect hair and uniform. Small stains marred his pristine white shirt. A few grains of rice were plastered on his face as was an extremely menacing glare.

"Uh, is that my lunch?"

"Yes Jiroh, _this_ is _your_ lunch."

The words came out as a low growl while his lips curled into a murderous smirk. Jiroh had to hop skip clumsily in order to maintain balance with the bandage on his ankle and to get away from Atobe who looked like he was stalking prey.

"You will now clean up this mes and it better be sparkling clean by the time ore-sama returns...or else."

"Yes Atobe!"

Jiroh was pinned against the wall by Atobe who still maintained a crazed murderous glint in his eyes. Being the loving family that they were, the other members were merely watching and waiting for any carnage. Nobody so much as made a twitch in an effort to help.

"Ore-sama shall return shortly. It will be clean, right?"

"Sparkling clean!"

The shorter boy saluted smartly as Atobe stepped back and straightened his food stained clothing. The room was thick with silence as the captain calmly walked out of the room and shut the door. The silence persisted until the echo of footsteps faded.

"Hahaha! That was the best thing ever!"

"Did you see his face?! I wish I had gotten a picture."

"Way to go Jiroh!"

It seemed like nobody could keep a straight face. Hiyoshi was not ashamed to smirk with amusement. Gakuto and Oshitari were laughing with each other as the acrobatic player was animately recounting the event even though his partner obviously witnessed it as well.

"Waa! Don't laugh, help me clean up!"

Jiroh was the only one who was not expressing any amusement with the situation. Ohtori sympathetically handed Jiroh his napkin even though he too was smiling. Shishido just shoved another bite of food into his mouth while he pointed at the mess with his free hand.

"You're the one that dumped your lunch on Atobe."

"But I didn't mean to! Nothing will happen if I clean up right? Kabaji, will Atobe do something to me?!"

"Usu."

"I'm dead! I'm going to disappear from the face of the planet!"

Gakuto looked annoyed with Jiroh as he jerked his thumb towards the large second year, Kabaji. The ever present and obedient follower of Atobe just remained impassively silent.

"Kabaji isn't exactly the best person to ask. I mean, he's like a broken magic eight ball. He's only got like, one response left in him."

There was no comfort for Jiroh who was frantically scrubbing with a few napkins he had pilfered from his teammates. Being mindful of his hi ankle, he got on the floor and began scrambling trying to find every last scrap of food and cleaning it up. Hiyoshi resumed eating as he smugly enjoyed the new situation. However, it seemed too short lived as the door flew open and Atobe strutted in with his usual air of superiority.

"See, see, all clean!"

Jiroh pointed at the area the food had spilled with a look of anticipation. Atobe slowly examined the area, his sharp eyesight thoroughly studying the area. The others also waited in silent anticipation for his verdict.

"Satisfactory. Now, what wonderfully enlightening conversation did ore-sama miss?"

He sat down imperiously and smugly made eye contact with each member. His gaze finally came to Hiyoshi and lingered there. Hiyoshi summoned all his self-discipline and forced himself to keep acting apathetic. What seemed like forever finally came to end when Atobe broke eye contact and picked up his chopsticks.

"Or can no such conversation be achieved without the presence of the brilliance that is ore-sama?"

An audible and incredulous snort from Shishido signaled the end of any of the tension. Hiyoshi subtly sighed in relief and was finally able to resume enjoying his lunch. The conversation all picked off from where they left off. Jiroh was oddly quiet while Atobe continued to spout something or another to Kabaji. Hiyoshi studied Atobe, discreetly of course, as he finished up his meal. The captain was the epitome of propriety even as he sat and held a semi-average conversation. When he ate, he was careful to never open his mouth too wide so he never took larger bites of food. It was any wonder that he ever made progress. Hiyoshi wondered how long Atobe's servants had to wait around for him to finish a meal.

"Now stop moping."

"Really Atobe? What about you?"

Hiyoshi snapped out of his thoughts. He noticed how Atobe had pushed his lunch towards Jiroh who immediately perked up. The usually dramatic diva absent-mindedly waved his hand.

"Ore-sama is full anyways. You obviously need it more to fuel your sporadic episodes of hyperactivity...Heavens only know where you store all of that..."

Atobe mumbled the last part more towards himself than anybody else. He calmly ignored the sounds of jubilation coming from Jiroh who eagerly set about inhaling the meal. Even though he had already eaten a good deal of it, there was still plenty left for Jiroh.

"Wow Atobe, this is so good!"

"Mm...Chew Jiroh..It aids in this little thing we call digestion...and breathe, Jiroh, breathe."

Atobe did not spare much of a glance at Jiroh as he would intermittently scold him about his eating habits. Hiyoshi continued to observe the situation even as he packed his _bento_ and wrapped it back up. He checked his watch and sighed. There was still a little bit of time left, so he rummaged in his bag and pulled out his math homework. There was no reason to waste good time being idle.

"What a diligent student you are, Hiyoshi."

He about dropped his pencil when that voice invaded his hearing. Glaring at Atobe, Hiyoshi just adjusted himself in his seat and tore his gaze from those piercing set of eyes. As he stared at the paper before him, Hiyoshi became all the more concious of his captain's gaze and his own lack of understanding at what he was reading.

"You need help, aan?"

Giving into his urges, Hiyoshi cringed and squeezed the life out of his pencil. He would have continued his death grip, but a loud cracking noise caused him to look down at his clenched hand.

"Ore-sama pities your pencil that is subjected to such brutality."

Hiyoshi bit back any comments or words that was currently flooding his mind. Examining the two pieces, he sighed. Trying his best to not say anything and to ignore Atobe and all the other pairs of eyes, he picked up his book bag and began searching around for the spare pencil he always kept. Everything in his bag was neat and organized, so when he was unable to find his spare pencil in its usual spot, Hiyoshi felt a sinking feeling work its way into his gut.

"_Curse it all...She never returned it..."_

He suddenly recalled last week's English class when a fellow student asked to borrow a pencil. Pressure from anger and frustration built inside his head as he realized that there was a quiz in said English class. In addition, it was not in his nature to ask and borrow things.

"Umm, Hiyoshi-san, you can borrow this pencil if you need it."

Ohtori offered one of his pencils. It was the best way possible, but some part of his stubborn pride kept him from accepting. It might have something to do with the smirk plastered on Atobe's face.

"No thanks. It's my own fault I don't have a pencil..."

"Umm, Hiyoshi-san, I don't think that's the point here. But if you're fine, that's good."

As he began putting the pencil away, Hiyoshi suddenly had the urge to hit himself. How could he have turned down that offer? Now he definitely could not ask anybody in the room. Atobe's obnoxious and amused stare did not help matters. Perhaps if it had just been Ohtori, he might have accepted, but having the tennis king of Hyotei stare brought out a very stubborn pride.

"Here Atobe!"

The heavy tension that Hiyoshi felt began to dissipate with Jiroh's interruption. He packed up the box and handed it back to Atobe who promptly handed it to Kabaji who quietly packed it away.

"Hey, don't bring lunch tomorrow, Atobe!"

"And why not?"

"Because."

"Well then, ore-sama certainly cannot argue with such an intelligent argument."

A small sigh escaped Atobe as Jiroh happily ignored the sarcasm directed towards him. The small distraction was enough time for Hiyoshi to hastily pack his things and pretend like nothing happened. It was working great until the bell rang marking the end of lunch. As all the regulars began to leave the room, Hiyoshi kept his eyes forward in hopes of avoiding a certain narcissist. Right before he could escape, another body slid by and stood resolutely in the doorway effectively blocking the only exit.

"Ore-sama can only wonder what has gotten into you."

"Imagine what you want Atobe."

He was going to just shove Atobe out of the way, but was prevented by having a pencil shoved into his face.

"Be honored to be able to use a writing utensil belonging to ore-sama."

Not even waiting for an answer or reply, the captain shoved the pencil, eraser side down, in Hiyoshi's shirt pocket. With a flourish and flip of his hair, Atobe turned to leave.

"Let's go Kabaji."

"Usu."

Hiyoshi stepped to the side to let the hulking second year pack mule pass. Bringing his hand to his pocket, he felt the pencil and let out a frustrated sigh. Of all the people, it had to be Atobe. Hiyoshi would have rather groveled and beg a classmate than have Atobe offer his own pencil out of his amusement and pity for a lowly commoner like him. At least, that was what Hiyoshi imagined anyways.

He pulled out the pencil and stared at it as he made his way back to his classroom. It looked ordinary enough. There was no special engravings or precious metals to be found on it. As far as he could tell, it was a regular, cheap pencil. Then again, he wondered if it was made from a single special tree found in some remote and exotic location.

When he got to class, he sought out his classmate who borrowed his pencil last. He found her sitting in her desk in the corner.

"Excuse me, but do you still have the pencil I lent you?"

She looked up from her notes and pulled out the pencil between her teeth.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, but could I borrow it some more?"

The pencil she motioned towards was none other than the pencil she had been gnawing on. Hiyoshi involuntarily twitched when he saw the mutilated end of the pencil.

"Sure. Just...Keep it."

"Thanks!"

Sitting down at his desk, Hiyoshi pulled out the pencil Atobe had lent him and set it on his desk and then stared at it. While the others were frantically cramming in last minute studying, Hiyoshi already knew the material and just studied the pencil. The final bell rung and the teacher waltzed in. She immediately instructed all the students to clear off their desks and began passing out the quiz.

As he expected, Hiyoshi knew all the questions and turned his quiz face down with the pencil sitting on top. He was half expecting something special to happen with the object during the quiz since it did belong to none other than Atobe Keigo. As he waited for the other students to finish, he idly wondered how much money he could get from selling the pencil to one of Atobe's groupies. He quickly shook the idea from his head and carefully picked up the pencil and placed it in his bag for safe keeping.

"_There is no way I'm losing this pencil...Not Atobe's pencil...Dammit all, it's a stupid pencil! Just return it at practice...I hate you so much right now Atobe... I hate you and your stupid pencil..."_

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**A/N:** How was that? Ever lend something like a pen or pencil to a friend and then they gnaw on it? It's annoying and kind of gross. I have no idea of math would be hard for Hiyoshi or not, but for this story, it is. And math really is an evil machination of dead guys...Moving along, hopefully the next chapter will be posted sooner than this one was. By the by, bento is a special box in sections for things like rice, meat and veggies. Also, in Japan, students don't move to different classrooms, instead, the teachers are the ones changing rooms. Hope you all enjoyed!


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